[Ginnser]

Hello Everyone

I am after a new PC and whilst I have a fairly good understanding of puttmg a PC together, I have no idea of which are the best parts to use.

Are Dell just as competitive on price -v- a self build ?

I wast a fairly powerfull machine 2GB ram or more, Dual Core, 20 " widescreen flat panel, at least 360Gb hard drive etc.

Also are there any alternatives in HK other than Dell that anyone can recommend.

And finally, in the UK Dell allow you to buy the PC now and get an upgrade to Vista when in arrives, I dont see Dell HK offering this!

Any advice is much appreciated

Thanks

[MrMoo]

Dell HK is tiny its not much of a comparison. Dell are very competitive on price, but their quality is dropping quickly.

In HK its popular to go to SSP and get someone to build one for you, it only takes an hour or two and you can get all the customisations you need.

[Ginnser]

MrMoo Thanks !

is SSP one of the computer centers in town? forgive me, in HK only 2 weeks!

Do you just recommend taking the spec you want and asking varios places to price them?

Also what about windows xp do you generally get it

Thanks

[KnowItAll]

use buycomp.hkgolden.com to get an idea of what the individual components will cost you.

Wanchai Computer Center, Golden Arcade in Sham Shui Po .. they're all computer malls of sorts.

I tend to recommend Wanchai Computer Center (take the MTR to Wanchai and ask anyone .. its within a minute's walk from the MTR station) to folks new in town.

[Ginnser]

Thanks for the replies! Will make my way down to see what I can get !

[jayinhongkong]

I've never had a Hong Kong-built clone that was anywhere near as reliable and stable as a Dell, and my family and I have owned several of each over the years. Your mileage may vary.

[Ginnser]

Umm Interesting. I Need a fairly powerfull machiner to act as a server for home system. Stream video, audio off it, interent telephone etc. I dont need it to mess up..

Apart from Dell in HK what else would you recommend? I have had a look at HP, but they seem to have a poor choice

Comments Appreciated

[discobay]

For state-of-the-art I would chose Dell over HP. Last year when I was looking at the two of them along with others HP hadn't even released dual core for their desktops and had no anticipated release date when asked. I went for Dell and have no regrets one year hence. All my previous desktops have been hand-built either by the shop or myself.

[penguinsix]

Are Dell parts compatible with other scratch built systems? I seem to recall somethings (like the power supply for example) would / could cause problems. Not sure--just asking.

[freeier]

other than the window's s/w, which they customiser the recovery disk and probably read the 'dell' bios to ensure their copyright terms are met, the rest of the system are ok with other make products.

the problem is, if you buy a dell with say 1 dvd, duo core, 2hd, graphics card. they are going to supply you with a power supply that just covers the power requirement of all these parts, the cheapest one they have available. so the minute you add an additional device (e.g. a 2nd CD drive which i did), the power supply is going to blow up on you.

but again power supplies are fairly cheap so you can replace that as well. 8)